director profile 2 2 armando bo
Bo’s father was also involved in the movie business. Victor Bo was an actor who, among other things, starred in the film series Los Superagentes. He later swapped his licence to kill for a licence to thrill, working as a producer. He would take the young Armando to film sets, letting him peer through the
With filmmaking in Armando Bo’s genetic code, he was destined to make a big impression. Laura Swinton meets a director armed with a licence to thrill
camera and putting him to work as an extra. It was then Armando discovered that he was cut out for a career behind rather than in front of the lens. “Once when my father was shooting a film in a small town, we were sleeping in a hotel, the sort of hotel where people go to fuck. But it was the best hotel in town so that’s where we stayed. So, I was just a kid and in the night I would hear noises...” Here, Bo proves his acting days are not behind him, and he does a fair impression of ‘sex noise’. “I was like ‘Dad, Dad, what’s happening?’ And he told me that some actors were rehearsing – for a fight scene. From then on I knew I wanted to shoot rehearsals.” It was almost inevitable that Bo would enter production when
armando bo
leaving school at the age of 17. He started out as a personal assistant – a job which consisted primarily of nipping out to buy stuff – before moving on to locations, becoming a production manager and then an
“My grandfather was a soft porn filmmaker from the 50s and 60s and my
assistant director. By the time Bo started directing at the age of 21, he had
father was a super agent, kind of like an Argentinian James Bond.”
already become something of an industry veteran.
My interview with director Armando Bo has got off to a promising start.
It was his depth of experience and familiarity with ad production that meant
We’re only one minute and 10 seconds in and I seem to have landed the kind
Bo managed to skip the stage of ‘struggling music video director’ and move
of quote that journalists’ wet dreams are made of. And it wasn’t, I must add,
more or less straight into advertising. His first job, he tells me after much
thanks to any killer questioning on my part. I think I opened with something
cajoling, was a short film in which he cast Argentinian producers. It was
dull and predictable like, ‘so how did you get into directing then?’.
funny at the time, he assures me, but, while he might be on the other end
But let’s get back to his soft-porn granddad – it’s not the sort of statement
of a 7,000-mile long distance phone call, I can tell he’s cringing. He’s been
you leave unquestioned. Grandpa Bo was indeed a well-known director,
directing for about eight years now, but his reel is far from cringe worthy.
shooting films throughout Latin America. He was responsible for the first
There’s his work for Axe, including Quake in which one especially sexually-
nude scene in Argentine cinema and was labelled as a pornographer by
charged couple cause an earthquake that destroys a swimming pool. Bo says
Buenos Aires’ then military government – and persecuted because of it. “In
this ad is one of his favourites, with its challenging effects and sultry sex
those days, if you showed a tit it was called porn,” says Bo. “But now in
appeal. Throughout his work there’s a wry sense of humour that nearly
South America he is celebrated as an artist.”
always makes itself known – sometimes cheeky, in the case of his VW spot
Considering that Bo’s own directing reel comprises a noticeably large
Tennis Coach, sometimes surreal, as with the Rexona Dolls ad. When Bo does
number of Axe commercials, sexy ladies and spurts of saucy humour, it’s
‘funny’, he prefers to keep it ironic and understated.
hard not to imagine that the spirit of his grandfather lives on in some small
Four years ago, Bo founded his own production company, Rebolucion, with
way through Bo Junior’s work.
fellow countryman Luciano Podcaminsky, forming what would prove to be
Armando Bo also shares his grandfather’s name. “So I guess my future is in
a successful but noticeably un-Argentinian partnership. “Maybe in England
porn,” jokes Bo. “My parents weren’t so creative with that.”
or the States it’s normal to have many hot directors together in one company, but here it wasn’t so usual,” he explains. “Maybe because egocentric Argentinians don’t like it – they don’t want to share and they always want to be the top guy in the company.” Podcaminsky and Bo, however, took a different approach. As well as co-
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director profile 2 4 armando bo
directing occasionally, they could double their chances of getting work by pitching separately and help each other out with heavy workloads. Bo explains that he has no time for prima donna directors, and likens his own style to that of a football team manager. It’s all about motivating the team, getting stuck in and
(Top) Impulse: Train and Airport (Above) Impulse Seaweeds and Ford Escola (Below) Axe Quake and Coca-Cola Beard
work, but being from here, the arse of the
keeping energy levels
world, you have to
high, he insists.
travel a lot more to meet interesting or important people.” Not that travelling is too much of a chore for him. He says it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job and he has developed soft spots
“Maybe in England or the US, it’s normal to have many hot directors in one company, but here it’s not. Maybe because egocentric Argentinians always want to be the top guy...”
for New York and London (“they are the most creative cities – I have received a lot of
And now, aged 29, Bo is ready to take on the world. Rebolucion has, four
inspiration when I’ve stayed there. And drinks. I have a lot of inspiration and
years on, firmly established itself in the Argentine ad scene. Its roster has
drinks”), and over the years he has become something of a Cannes mainstay.
grown to include five directors, including Baby, Doble Nelson and Luciano
All this travel coupled with a natural gregariousness has meant that Bo has
Urbani. In Bo’s own words, his enterprise “has wings”. Which leaves him free
managed to put himself about a bit, and in the process built quite a
to concentrate on his own directing career and focus on the big markets
reputation for himself. I tell him that I’ve heard (putting it mildly) that he’s a
beyond South America. A year and a half ago he signed with Anonymous
bit of a party animal. “No, that’s not me,” he replies sheepishly. “They must
Content in the US and he’s also with Independent in the UK.
have been talking about another director...”
Bo’s picked a good time to go global. With Fallon’s Juan Cabral scooping the
Advertising isn’t the only area Bo hopes to charm into submission. This year
Grand Prix at Cannes and enjoying demi-god status, Argentina’s creative
he made his first steps into the world of feature films. Together with his
credentials are on the ascendant. The country’s reputation within the
cousin, he has spent the first part of this year working on a movie script for
international industry has never been higher, and Bo reckons that this is
21 Grams and Amores Perros director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. It’s
definitely making things easier for him.
currently being filmed, but when pushed for details, his reply is that of a true
But although Argentina enjoys a high standing in the international industry,
super agent’s son. He would tell me, but then he’d have to kill me.
Bo points out that it is still relatively difficult for an outsider-director to get
However, it’s obvious that Bo’s bursting to talk about the project, and at least
a foothold in Europe and North America. “In advertising you need to meet a
concedes that he’s enjoyed the chance to try his hand at script writing, and
lot of people and you have to be open. I mean you have your reel and your
that it’s been a useful learning experience which has whetted his appetite for long format productions. “I really like being a cliché,” he teases. “You know, like all commercial directors who really want to make a movie. But,” he adds, with a cocky twinkle, “I am a good cliché.”
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